Tag: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Clark Gable

A database of performers in musicals seems an unlikely place to find the King of Hollywood. But William Clark Gable (1901-60) was a contract player and did what he was told–twice, in the case of musicals.

Gable became a stage actor at the age of 21, touring in stock companies. From 1923, he laboured in the fields of extra work in Hollywood, including a bit part dancing in Erich von Stroheim’s version of The Merry Widow (1925). In Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), he played a Roman guard. He continued to do stage work during this period, spending time in New York.

In 1931, Gable undertook a range of supporting roles in Hollywood, with his appearance in Night Nurse (1931) bringing him particular attention, playing the villainous chauffeur, Nick. Immediately afterwards,MGM cast him opposite Greta Garbo in Susan Lenox (Her Rise and Fall) and Joan Crawford in Possessed (both 1931). The first true ‘Clark Gable’ picture was Red Dust (1932), with Jean Harlow, establishing him as MGM’s leading leading man.

Loaned out to Columbia as a punishment for being difficult, Gable won an Oscar for the hugely-popular It Happened One Night (1934), and was nominated again for playing Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty(1935), a role he hated. In 1939, he was the people’s choice to play Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939). He had by hen been dubbed ‘the King’ in a nationwide poll.

Shattered by the sudden death of his wife, Carole Lombard, Gable took time out from 1942 to 1944 to serve in the air force during the Second World War. After his return, his career never reached the same heights as previously, but he remained a star until his death aged 59. His final role was in John Huston’s film maudit The Misfits (1961).

Gable’s two musicals for MGM were Dancing Lady and San Francisco. In deference to his macho image, his characters were named Patch Gallagher and Blackie Norton.

September 4, 2026
Stage Mother

Some Thoughts

Stage Mother is a pretty good film, but a lacklustre musical. Based on the backstage novel written by Bradford Ropes immediately after 42nd Street, and with Ropes as co-author of the screenplay, it is a much darker film than the Warner Bros adaptation of the earlier novel, the improbable happy ending notwithstanding. But it lacks 42nd Street’s humour and, most essentially, Busby Berkeley’s production numbers.

Kitty (Alice Brady), and the new-born Shirley, who is blissfully unaware of what lies ahead

Albertina Rasch was no Busby Berkeley,and the two production numbers in Stage Mother, the first of which launches Freed-Brown’s ‘Beautiful Girl’, are mostly by-the-numbers parades of swaying chorus girls.

What saves Stage Mother is the central performance of Alice Brady, following up her benevolent mother in Broadway to Hollywood with a convincing portrait of the fixated stage mother. In an early scene with her dead husband’s parents and forbidding sister, she is very moving, entirely credible with her nervous laughter. Later, she is a ruthless blackmailer in her daughter’s supposed interests, even acting as a procurer for the gay dance instructor.

Ralph (Ted Healy) finally persuades Kitty to marry him

Maureen O’Sullivan was a lesser talent, and very inexperienced, but she holds her own as the manipulated, and later manipulative, daughter. The real problem with her performance is that she exhibits not one iota of the stage talent that everyone else in the picture is attributing to her.

Director Charles Brabin was beyond his best years when he made Stage Mother; he would only make two further films, before retiring to enjoy the wealth he and his wife, Theda Bara, had accumulated. But he was always more than a Hollywood journeyman, and he and cinematographer George J Folsey achieved a better-looking film than might be expected, often using unconventional camera angles.

Kitty has charged $10,000 for her daughter’s virginity. Warren (Franchot Tone) shares his thoughts with Shirley (Maureen O’Sullivan)

Stage Mother has been described as a musicalized soap opera, and there is some justification in that. But it is an entertaining soap opera, let down only by a final scene in which all the blackmail and pimping is brushed to one side. It also contains an audition sequence in which Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer and Mary Ann Jackson, together with an unnamed contortionist, demonstrate just how awful child performers can be.

September 4, 2026

Dancing Lady

The Cast

Joan Crawford	Janie Barlow
Clark Gable	Patch Gallagher
Franchot Tone	Tod Newton
May Robson	Dolly Todhunter
Winnie Lightner	Rosette LaRue
Fred Astaire	Himself
Robert Benchley	Ward King
Ted Healy	Steve
Art Jarrett	Himself
Grant Mitchell	Jasper Bradley Sr
Nelson Eddy	Himself
Maynard Holmes	Jasper Bradley Jr
Sterling Holloway	Pinky
Gloria Foy	Vivian Warner
Moe Howard	Stagehand
Curly Howard	Stagehand (as Jerry Howard)
Larry Fine	Harry
Eve Arden	Marcia (uncredited)
Shirley Aaronson	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Jean Alden	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Gail Arnold	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Florine Bale	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Lee Bailey	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Lynn Bari	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Bonita Barker	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Kathryn Barnes	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Esther Brodelet	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Edna Callahan	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Lorena Carr	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Shirley Chambers	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Elizabeth Cooke	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Dalie Dean	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Shirley Deane	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Dorothy Dearing	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Dale Dee	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Nadine Dore	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Veleda Duncan	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Eleanor Edwards	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Fay Estelle	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Muriel Evans	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Kay Gordon	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Chicquita Marcia	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Miriam Marlin	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Lorraine Marshall	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Margaret McConnell	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Lucille Miller	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Ruth Moody	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Iris Nicholson	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Patsy O’Dea	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
May Packer	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Jackie Page	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Linda Parker	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Frances Sawyer	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Geneva Sawyer	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Anita Thompson	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Irene Thompson	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Marjorie Timm	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Ardelle Unger	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Zelda Webber	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Marion Weldon	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Mary Wilbur	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Francis Belmont	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
Louis Delgado	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
Alan DeAstray	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
John Fulso	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
Lester Ostrander	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
Wilburn Riviere	Chorus Boy (uncredited)
Earl Blackwell	Dancer (uncredited)
Harry C Bradley	Pinky’s friend (uncredited)
John Sheehan	Pinky’s friend (uncredited)
Max Barwyn	Maitre D’ (uncredited)
Jack Baxley	Burlesque Barker (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone	Traffic Cop (uncredited)
Bill Elliott	Cafe Patron (uncredited)
Ferdinand Gottschalk	Judge (uncredited)
Frank Hagney	Policeman (uncredited)
Matt McHugh	Marcia’s Agent (uncredited)
Florine McKinney	Grace Newton (uncredited)
Jess Mendelson	Dance Director (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	Man in Bradley Sr’s outer office (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	Bailiff (uncredited)
Victor Potel	Worker (uncredited)
C Montague Shaw	First Nighter (uncredited)
Pat Somerset	Tod’s Friend (uncredited)
Larry Steers	First Nighter (uncredited)
Charles Sullivan	Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Charles Williams	Man Arrested in Burlesque Theatre (uncredited)
Charles C. Wilson	Club Manager (uncredited)

September 3, 2026

Dancing Lady

The Numbers

Hold Your Man	Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown	Winnie Lightner and chorus
Everything I Have Is Yours	Burton Lane, Harold Adamson	Art Jarrett
My Dancing Lady	Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh	Art Jarrett
Heigh-Ho, the Gang’s All Here	Burton Lane, Harold Adamson	Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, chorus
Let’s Go Bavarian	Burton Lane, Harold Adamson	Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, chorus
(That’s the) Rhythm of the Day	Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart	Nelson Eddy, Mildred Carroll (for Joan Crawford)

September 3, 2026

Dancing Lady

The Synopsis

Tod Newton and a bunch of swells get tickets for a burlesque show [Hold Your Man]. There is a police raid and both performers and audience are hauled off to the night court. Janie Barlow tells the judge she was stripping in a burlesque because it was the only dancing work she could find and she has to eat. She is sentenced to a $30 fine or 30 days in jail. Tod pays her fine and buys her a meal. Janie is grateful, but makes it clear she has no interest in being kept by a rich man.

Janie (Joan Crawford) and friends whip off their skirts at the burlesque

At home, Janie reads a note given to her by Tod. It gives her advice on grammar and clothes, and contains $50, “to buy a dress without a zipper”. Janie tells her roommate Rosetta that she is quitting burlesque. Patch Gallagher is putting on a new show, and Janie is determined to get a part in it.

Next day, Janie goes to the Bradley Theatre, where Patch has, reluctantly, cast Vivien Warner in the lead. Janie cannot get in to see him, but she follows him out of the theatre and then follows him around for days. She runs into Tod, who has been looking for her. He gives her a letter of introduction to Jasper Bradley, Patch’s boss, and promises to ask for nothing in return.

Patch tells his assistant, Steve, to audition Janie and then give her the brush-off. But Steve is impressed by Janie’s dancing and calls Patch. Patch gives her a job and tells her to stop following him.

Janie helps Harry (Larry Fine) with his jigsaw puzzle

Next day, Tod and Bradley discuss Tod’s secret backing of the show. He arranges for Janie to be paid during rehearsals, unlike the other members of the chorus. Tod arranges a party for the whole company [Everything I Have Is Yours]. Tod and Janie kiss, but then she goes home.

Next morning, Patch finds Janie working out in the gym, even though she has the morning off. They spar with each other, and Patch mentions the possibility of giving Janie a speciality number. Tod takes Janie to his home in the country, where she meets his family.

Tod asks Janie to marry him, but she says her career is more important and tells him about the speciality number. She agrees to marry him if the show is not a success.

Patch decides he wants the show rewritten and modernized, and he offers Janie the top spot. [My Dancing Lady].

While rehearsing with Fred Astaire [Heigh-Ho, the Gang’s All Here], Janie’s leg gives way. Massaging her leg, Patch asks Janie about newspaper stories concerning the crowd she is running with. He advises her not to marry into money. Janies assures him she is not planning to quit on him.

Bradley suddenly cancels the show and leaves for France. Tod invites Janie on a cruise to Cuba. Patch shows his unhappiness when Janie tells him she is probably getting married.

Janie and Patch (Clark Gable) bicker in the gym–a necessary preliminary to falling in love

Patch decides to produce the show using his own money. He tells Steve to bring back Vivien, because Janie has “gone Park Avenue”.

Janie has no fun in Cuba and asks Tod to take her home. Back in New York, Patch, who is not getting on with Vivien, learns that Tod had paid Bradley to close the show.

The night before the show opens, Janie finds Patch drunk in a nightclub. He tells her the truth about Tod’s involvement with the show. Janie follows Patch back to his apartment and goads him into putting her back in the show. They rehearse all night and the show opens [Heigh-Ho, the Gang’s All Here; Let ‘s Go Bavarian]. Tod is in the audience. [(That’s The) Rhythm of the Day]. The show is a success.

Tod asks Janie to marry him and continue with her career, but she says their worlds will not mix. Janie tells Patch that Tod is gone for good and they kiss.

September 3, 2026
Dancing Lady (1933)

The Synopsis
The Cast
The Crew
The Numbers
Some Thoughts

September 3, 2026
Joseph M Newman

Joseph Max Newman (1909-2006) was a highly-respected assistant director who worked his way up to become a mediocre director.

Newman started out in the film industry as an office boy, then a clerk. His first assignments as assistant director were in 1933, when worked on eight MGM productions, including Dinner at Eight, directed by George Cukor. He worked for Cukor again on David Copperfield (1934), for which he was nominated for the Assistant Director Academy Award.

MGM allowed him to start directing shorts in 1938, alongside his work as AD on features. His first full-length picture was Northwest Rangers (1942), Metro’s version of a ‘B’ movie.

Newman directed around 45 low-budget features before moving to television. His most high-profile picture This Island Earth (1955), though its more interesting aspects are attributable to Jack Arnold, who reshot some of Newman’s footage.

Seven MGM musicals had Newman as AD: Stage Mother, Going Hollywood, The Merry Widow, Rose-Marie, San Francisco (another Oscar nomination), Maytime and The Firefly. Some sources claim that he directed the famous ‘Donkey Serenade’ sequence in The Firefly.

September 3, 2026
Frank E Hull

Frank Edgar Hull (1882-1968) was a film editor who spent most of his career working for MGM and, to a lesser extent, Fox. He worked on around eighty pictures in the period 1920-50.

Hull is famous to film historians for working closely with Erich von Stroheim on the editing of Greed (1924). He received no credit on the final version of the film after it had been drastically cut and re-edited by MGM. Hull also worked with von Stroheim on The Wedding March (1928), which was also subject to studio interference, this time by Paramount.

Hull’s projects were never as prestigious again, though he did work with John Ford on one of his masterpieces, They Were Expendable (1945).

Frank Hull edited six Metro musicals: Stage Mother, The Cat and the Fiddle, Student Tour, Here Comes the Band, A Day at the Races and Panama Hattie.

September 2, 2026
George J Folsey

No one photographed more MGM musicals than George Joseph Folsey (1898-1988). He spent 27 years at the studio, was credited cinematographer on twenty-one musicals and did uncredited work on another. Only Oliver T Marsh gets close.

Folsey was fourteen when he joined Jesse Lasky’s Famous Players company in New York as an office boy. Within a couple of years he was working as assistant cameraman [sic], with his first film believed to be The Incorrigible Dukane (1915), with John Barrymore.

He got his first credit as cinematographer, aged 23), on His Bridal Night (1919), and did so well that he became star Alice Brady’s photographer of choice. Folsey was prolific in the final years of the silent era, shooting 36 films from 1920 to 1928.

At Paramount, Folsey was cinematographer on Rouben Mamoulian’s Applause (1929), on Lubitsch’s The Smiling Lieutenant, and on the Marx Brothers’ first two films.

Folsey moved to Hollywood in 1932, after signing with MGM. He got off to a flying start with his first picture, reunited with Barrymore on Reunion in Vienna (1933), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He was nominated thirteen times over the years, but never won.

Non-musical highlights of Folsey’s years at MGM included Marie Antionette (1938), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Under the Clock (1945), State of the Union (1948), Adam’s Rib (1949) and Forbidden Planet (1956).

The twenty-two MGM musicals shot by Folsey were: Stage Mother, Going Hollywood, Reckless, The Great Ziegfeld, Two Girls on Broadway, Lady Be Good, Rio Rita, Panama Hattie, Seven Sweethearts, Thousands Cheer, Meet Me in St Louis, Ziegfeld Follies, The Harvey Girls, Till the Clouds Roll By, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Mr Imperium, Lovely to Look At, Million Dollar Mermaid, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Band Wagon (uncredited), Deep in My Heart and Hit the Deck.

September 2, 2026
Louis Silvers

The status of Louis Silberstein (1889-1954) as the pioneer of film music is unassailable, given that he worked as musical director and composer on The Jazz Singer (1927), the ur-musical/talking picture.

Silvers had already claimed his place in musical history when, aged 24, he composed the music for ‘April Showers’, with lyrics by Buddy De Sylva. He also wrote the music for the experimental sound sequences in the D W Griffith turkey Dream Street (1921). He also composed for three other Griffith pictures.

Silvers had started out as a vaudeville pianist and was working as a musical director on Broadway when he went to Hollywood. His work on The Jazz Singer is far more nuanced and inventive than the film in general, or Al Jolson’s overblown performance in particular, though it rarely figures in discussion of the picture’s importance.

Silvers went on to compose music for over thirty films and act as musical director on around seventy. He also conducted the music for dozens of Warner’s early Vitaphone recordings. In 1935, he won the Oscar for Best Original Score for One Night of Love (1934).

For MGM, Silvers composed and conducted incidental music for Stage Mother and Dancing Lady, and co-wrote ‘Schnarzan’ for Hollywood Party.

September 2, 2026